Robot system and control method for robot system

Abstract

A robot system includes a sensor, a robot equipped with a gripping device capable of gripping a detected article, and a controller. The controller includes a gripping area setting unit that, for each article, sets a gripping area in which the gripping device is to be positioned when it grips the article, a determination unit that determines presence or absence of interference between the gripping area and other articles, a storage unit that stores a result of determination on the presence or absence of interference determined by the determination unit in association with each detected article, a robot control unit that causes the gripping device to pick up an article for which no other article interferes with the gripping area thereof, and an updating unit that updates the result of determination stored in the storage unit every time an article is picked up by the gripping device.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A robot system comprising a sensor for detecting a shape of an article being conveyed, a robot equipped with a gripping device capable of gripping a detected article, and a controller for controlling the robot, the controller comprising;
 a gripping area setting unit that, for each one of detected articles, sets a gripping area in which the gripping device is to be positioned when the gripping device grips the article; 
 a determination unit that initially determines a presence or absence of interference between the gripping area that has been set and other articles; 
 a storage unit that stores a result of determination on the presence or absence of interference determined by the determination unit in association with each detected article; 
 a robot control unit that controls the robot to cause the gripping device to pick up an article for which no other article interferes with the gripping area thereof; and 
 an updating unit that updates the result of determination stored in the storage unit every time an article is picked up by the gripping device, 
 wherein, after the updating unit updates the result of the determination stored in the storage unit, the determination unit again determines the presence or absence of interference between the gripping area that has been set and the other articles. 
 
     
     
       2. The robot system according to  claim 1 , wherein the gripping area setting unit sets different gripping areas in accordance with a kind of an article detected by the sensor. 
     
     
       3. The robot system according to  claim 1 , wherein the storage unit stores first interfering article information, the first interfering article information associating identification information of each one article with identification information of another article interfering with the gripping area set for the one article. 
     
     
       4. The robot system according to  claim 3 , wherein the storage unit stores second interfering article information, the second interfering article information associating identification information of another article having a gripping area with which the one article interferes with the identification information of the one article. 
     
     
       5. The robot system according to  claim 3 , wherein, when identification information of two articles are associated with each other in the first interfering article information, the two articles are excluded from an update by the updating unit. 
     
     
       6. A control method for a robot system, the method comprising:
 a detection step of detecting a shape of an article being conveyed; 
 a gripping area setting step of setting, for each one of detected articles, a gripping area in which a gripping device is to be positioned when the gripping device is caused to grip the article; 
 a determination step of initially determining a presence or absence of interference between the gripping area that has been set and other articles; 
 a storage step of storing a result of determination on the presence or absence of interference in a storage unit in association with each detected article; 
 a control step of controlling a robot to cause the gripping device to pick up an article for which no other article interferes with the gripping area thereof; 
 an updating step of updating the result of determination stored in the storage unit every time an article is picked up by the gripping device; and 
 after the updating step, another determination step of again determining the presence or absence of interference between the gripping area that has been set and the other articles.